That army had Karttikeya and Ganapathy at its head. Virabhadra,
Nandin, Mahakaala, Subhadraka, Visalaksha, Bana, Pingalaksha,
Vikampana, Virupa, Manibhadra, Baskala, Kapila, Dirghadamshtra and a
thousand other gana generals as mighty, were in its ranks. This army set out
from Kailasa to confront the legions of the Emperor of the worlds. Vikara
led a hundred thousand ganas, as did Tamaralochana, Kalankara,
Balibhadra, Kaalajiva, Kutichara, Balonmatta, Rangaslaghya, the vicious
Durjaya, the savage Duragama and many more!
At the head of unimaginable phalanxes, the careful Sankakarna
marched, Kekaraksha and Vikrita, the terrible Visaka, Pariyatrika,
Sarvantaka and glorious Vikratanana, Jalaka, Samada, Dundubha,
Kalaraksha, Sandaraka, Kunduka and Kundaka. Vistambha was part of that
oceanic, horrible army, Pippala and Sannada. Avesana went with that force,
Chandrapatana, Mahakesa, the valiant Kundin, the auspicious and gigantic
Parvataka, the ancient Kaala and Kaalaka, the fierce Agnika, the blazing
Aditya and Ghanavaha and countless more come to Siva’s banner from
across the worlds: all ash-smeared, wearing holy rudraksha into battle and
matted jata for crowns.
The eight Vasus marched with Siva, the twelve Adityas, Indra, Agni,
Soma, Viswakarman, the Asvins, Kubera, Yama, Nirriti, Vayu, Varuna,
Budha, Mangala and even Kama. Another army went beside this one: one
that not the ganas dared come too near though it was an allied force. At the
head of that force, went Bhadrakaali in a jewel-studded vimana, as easy
through time as space. She wore vivid crimson clothes, a crimson garland
of jungle blossoms around her neck and she had smeared her body, as black
as sunless space, with unguents crimson as blood. She was utterly lovely
and depraved. She danced, sang, laughed lewdly and was in a great mood
for the killing to come.
Her tongue was a yojana long and it was never still. In her thousand
hands, she carried sankha and gada, chakra and sword, a lotus, a leather
shield, bows and arrows, a round skull, a trisula that scraped the sky, a spear
longer than her tongue, an iron club, a thunderbolt and all the weapons of
all the devas, the mahavira, the saura, the kaalakaala, Yama’s danda, the
samartha and the mahanala weapons, among numberless others. She came
to battle at the proud head of six million yoginis and dakinis.
Tens of thousands of bhutas in their monstrous swarms marched in
Siva’s army: pretas, pisachas, kusmandas, brahmarakshasas, vetalas,